Swimming and a cold bike ride

Got my staples out today. Doctor said everything looks great. I'm still trying to digest everything he said about returning to running. The difficulty is that this Doc knows me. I've been going to him for about a decade now, and he knows that I'm gonna push the limits of whatever he says. If he tells me to start out running 10 minutes on grass every other day and build 10% per week, he knows I'll be running 20-30 minutes everyday by the second week. So more on that in a later post.

I was cleared to hit the water today, so I went to the gym... and discovered that the deepest the pool gets is 4 1/2 feet. How am I supposed to aqua jog in that shit? So swimming it was. Swam for 30 minutes, switching strokes about every 5 minutes. Did front -> back -> front -> breast (hehe) -> front (3 min) -> back (4 min) -> front (3 min). Yes, I just laughed at breast stroke, and yes, I turn 22 next week. The swimming felt good. Not as difficult as I thought it would be.

After swimming, I headed home and got out my mountain bike. It was dark. My neighbors probably think I am crazy. Oh wait, they've seen me running at 3 am before. Nevermind. I didn't realize that the temperature had dropped 20 degrees since my doctor appointment. I was wearing running tight shorts instead of bike shorts. It was quite cold. Did 30 minutes.

My leg was feeling good today. I was a little worried that it would be hurting after a late night dancing at my buddy's concert last night, but no problems.

Good talk. See you out there.

That Fire

Hit the gym again today. My leg felt fine after two straight days of cross training, so I made it three. Did 25 minutes on the bike and then 35 on the elliptical to also make it my highest volume since the surgery. Felt great. I hit both the bike and the elliptical pretty hard. Heart rate didn't get higher than 150 or so on the bike, but I got it up into the 170's for just a little on the elliptical. Thinking about getting a heart rate monitor for when I'm back running.

Doctor tomorrow to get the stitches out. Hoping he clears me to run at 4 weeks out.

I'm very pleased with the way I'm cross training right now. Usually it's a real struggle not to sit on my ass when I can't run, but this time it's different. I've got a fire lit under me like never before. I trained my butt off for years to run fast, but this is a completely different feeling. I don't know how fast I'll ever be again. If I run cross country, there's no way I'll be anywhere near the times I ran three years ago. And yet I don't think I've ever wanted to train harder than I do right now.

I'm eating healthier than ever, I'm actually cross training, I'm stretching, I'm icing, and I'm not doing anything too stupid with this leg. Hell, I'm not even drinking other than an occasional beer. My sleep isn't great yet, but that will change as soon as I start work. Then it's a simple schedule: 5:45 wake-up, 6:15 run, work at camp, second training session (cross training until I can run twice per day), dinner, downtime, sleep by 10. I have to keep myself to that bedtime. Fuck distractions. I have one goal this summer: run cross country.

Feeling Great

I expected my leg to be pretty tight today after my longest day of cross training since the surgery yesterday. It turns out my only complaint is that the calf is tight from the bruising. My cold is also gone, so I'm feeling goooood.

Hit the gym yet again. 15 minutes on the bike to warm up. Knee felt fine, so the resistance went up pretty quick. Headed over to the elliptical after that for 25 minutes. Ended up going pretty hard. Felt great. Really, really happy about the way this leg is feeling two weeks out from surgery. Feels like it's almost ready for running, though I still have to play it safe.

If I'm feeling alright tomorrow, I'm gonna try to make it an hour of cross training. Staples come out Friday. Only issue is that the lower incision is a bit irritated, we think from the staples. Looks like that one's gonna scar which is a little disappointing, but I guess that happens with surgery. The big incision up top looks so good that I'm not sure it'll even scar.

Off to sleep.

Cross training... again

Started off on the bike for 20 minutes mostly pretty easy. Around 90 rpm basically the whole time without much protest from my knee. Hit the elliptical after for 30 minutes. Got the resistance up a bit towards the middle. Also played with the incline and got that up a bit towards the middle since this was one of the fancy new machines where you can do that. Not too sure who the incline affects difficulty or muscles used. Can't say that I care that much... just another diversion when I'm stuck cross training inside.

I need to get onto a good sleep schedule. But with no work, no school, and no running, it seems almost impossible. I'm getting enough sleep for the most part, though when I get back to running, I need to be strict with myself and make it 8-9 hours per night.

Again to Gym and facing the Scale

This cold really has me knocked out. I feel more doped-up now than when I was on the pain meds. And I'm not even on cold medicine right now. However, about an hour before hitting the gym, I took a pill with a decongestant and antihistamine. I was in la-la land for my workout which I guess wasn't such a bad thing. Hit the elliptical for 30 minutes, keeping the resistance low since my knee was pretty stiff today. At 10 and 20 minutes I stopped for a few seconds to bend the knee and loosen it up a bit. It still doesn't like all the blood rushing through it though the bruises are really subsiding. The staples are definitely ready to come out as they're irritating the skin just a bit. Have to wait for my appointment of Friday.

So now to tackle the bigger issue. Which luckily is not as big as it was about a month ago. My weight. If I want to be at all competitive again, I have to drop to a reasonable racing weight. I do not know exactly what that is. In high school, it was nearly constantly 137 pounds. In college before I was hurt, it was between 145 and 150. I ran my 5,000m PR nearly 10 pounds heavier than my high school weight which probably indicates a gain in muscle and height rather than fat. I was 1/2 - 1 inch taller by winter break freshman year and clearly stronger based on my times.

So then there's me today. I was 176 pounds this afternoon. That's fat. However, I've also shown myself over the past month that I can lose weight, as I peaked somewhere around 185, maybe to the 190 side, in mid-April. I ran a bit in late-April and early-May, but the gains (errr... losses) really came from watching what I ate. I virtually eliminated fried foods and stopped gorging myself on delicious Somerville/Medford take-out. At home, it's really easy to eat healthy. Whole wheat pastas, long grain rice, lean chicken, beans, fruit, vegetables, salad, yogurt, and other nutritious items are readily available, and I have plenty of time (and clean dishes) to cook. Basically, I need to make sure any weight loss comes from training and healthy food choices, not starving myself. Besides, I love food too much to do such a thing.

So time to set some goals which are subject to change suddenly and drastically. I figure I'll be around 170 again (same as last summer) at the start of work at summer camp June 15th. And I'll just be starting to run. The combination of running and knock-me-on-my-ass work days is always a great recipe for weight loss. So 1-2 weeks into July, I'm aiming for 165; first week of August, I'm looking at 160; and at the start of XC camp in September, I want to be at a (relatively) lean 155. Cross country season can then knock off any weight it wants to. I'm just gonna focus on running my fucking ass off all season. Of course, I've never worried much about weight before so if I'm 160 or 165 in September but ran almost every day of the summer, so be it.

And since I really don't care about my weight goals, I just wasted 15 minutes of my time typing this and 5 minutes of yours if you read it. What can I say? I'm stir-crazy between no work, no school, and no running.

Back to the gym

Headed back to the gym today after giving the leg some semi-rest yesterday. In reality, the leg maybe got overworked yesterday while at my high school's sectional meet. Lots of standing and walking which really makes my knee swell up still with all the bruising. To get onto the infield when I arrived at the meet, I needed to jog across the track. To my (pleasant) surprise, the leg felt fine jogging. Obviously, I'm a few weeks away from actual running, but it's a great feeling to have this little trouble barely a week out of surgery.

At the gym, I planned to get 35-40 minutes of work in on the bike and elliptical. I started out on the elliptical, planning to hit 25 minutes. Baylor's 12th straight victory in the 4x400m at Big 12's kept me going an extra minute for a total of 26. I moved over to the bike and found my knee pretty stiff and a bit sore from the elliptical, so I started out slow and easy. The knee eventually loosened up some, and I sped up, but kept the resistance fairly low for the 10 minutes I spent on the bike.

After stretching, I felt just a bit of stiffness and soreness in the knee, but not too bad for over 35 minutes of work. My biggest problem right now is that I'm battling a cold. Really, who gets a cold in May? I iced the knee when I returned home and it's feeling pretty alright. Today was also my first day off of pain meds, so I expect to be feeling it a bit more.

Hitting the Gym

I just returned from my first workout post-surgery. It wasn't anything too exciting, just testing out my bionic leg (har har har). I took 1 Norco and 2 ibu profin around 1 today, and then the same before I left to work out around 6:30. I'm keeping track of the medicine so that I know how much my pain (or lack thereof) is natural and how much is chemically induced.

I started out with 15 minutes easy on the recumbent stationary bike. My knee was a little bit tight and sore at the top of my stroke, but that seemed to subside after a few minutes. Towards the end, as I increased resistance a bit, I felt just a little bit of soreness once again. Overall, no major (or minor) problems.

I then did about 15 minutes on the elliptical. Tried to keep my cadence up and added a little resistance later. No problems here. Occasionally a twinge of pain when I came down hard on the left, but nothing else.

Stretched out fairly well and it still feels loose now, about an hour later. Maybe tightening up just a little. I plan on icing for a bit just in case.

Speedy Recovery

I went to the doctor today and had my leg unwrapped for the first time. The leg was pretty bruised, though that has subsided some the last two days. The incisions are healing very well, the doctor was happy with my pain level, and I was cleared to hit the elliptical and stationary bike (I'm assuming he said stationary because he doesn't want me crashing me road or mountain bike). I worked on bending my knee the last two days, and it's now able to bend within about an inch of where it's supposed to.

The incisions are all vertical. What that does is allow me to bend me knee and ankle without pulling at the healing wounds. All three incisions are closed with staples. The top incision where the titanium IM rod was inserted just below my knee cap and slightly to the inside of center is an inch and a half at most and closed with 6 staples. The other incision near my knee about an inch lower and half an inch further inside. This one was used to insert a screw that holds the rod stable in my bone. The incision is between 1/2 and 3/4 of an inch and closed with 3 staples. The final incision was made just above my ankle and further inside to drain the excess bone marrow, blood, etc. It's less than half and inch and closed with 3 more staples. The doctor used a 9 mm rod, the smallest diameter available, because my bone was actually in very good health; it was dense so no bigger rod would fit.

The x-rays are pretty sweet. You can see the rod all the way down the bone, including the screw that holds it in place. The bone is more hollow near the bottom so you can see the pockets not filled by the rod. These are still filled with bone marrow.

Cautiously Aggressive

Even if I am running by the doctors' earliest estimate of June 10th, I will have less than three months to pound myself into shape before the season. That means I have to be aggressive, but I also have to stay healthy.

The balance between too much and too little is a constant battle for the distance runner, and in my case, it will be imperative to strike exactly the right formula. I'd love to go out and run 100 mile weeks and feel like death warmed over from day to day. It's a good kind of tired. But I know my body cannot handle that, nor will I have the time to safely build to that mileage. However, 8 kilometers is going to be quite a long race if I cannot run some sort of high mileage by August.

Over the next few weeks, I must do all that I can to get my body ready for the workload. I need to eat healthier and cross train so that I lose weight and can handle the shock of a faster mileage build-up than is ideal. Moreover, I need to fit plenty of icing and stretching into my routine to prevent injury and allow my muscles to recover from a workload they haven't experienced in over two years.

The most important things I can do this summer are remember to take it day-by-day and listen to my body. I usually give myself strict mileage goals, but the variability in my conditioning will make this nearly impossible. I may find myself in July struggling to complete a 40 mile week, or I may end up cruising through a 50 mile week. Like never before, I will have to tune in to my body in order to efficiently use the limited time that I have.

On Tuesday I visit my doctor to have a new dressing put on my leg. I will get to see the leg for the first time since my surgery, and I will also get to discuss recovery with my doctor. Judging from the way I feel, I think I could be back even sooner than expected, or at the very least, I will be able to cross train earlier than we thought. Whatever the case, this summer is going to be the most challenging and potentially rewarding period of my running career.

And so it begins

It's nearly 5 a.m. I've been browsing running websites and shooting out messages to my summer training group for the past 3 hours. I'm anxious.

Two days ago, I had surgery to repair my injured leg. I haven't run competitively in over 2 years, an amount of time that still seems unfathomable to a man who has put in more thousands of miles over the years than he cares to think about at the moment.

But now my injury is repaired. I will run again next month once my leg has healed, and I will have the entire summer to train for an eventual return to racing. It will be a difficult road to recovery. I am fat. I am slow. I have lost all of the fitness I built up through 3 years of high mileage training. But I have not lost the drive to run faster, further, and harder than ever before.

I'm filled with countless emotions. I'm excited to run and to be fit. I'm nervous that I won't be able to get into shape or that the surgery will not work. I'm angry at two years and seven seasons wasted. All of these feelings jumble together in my mind. There is only one way to sort them out: mile by mile on the trails this summer.